This is the sixth in a series of interviews exploring the journey of Koreans who've left their motherland to compete in the cutthroat U.S. tech industry. ― EDBy Jane HanSEATTLE ― Many think Pokemon Go's glory days are over, but Park Sang-min says not so fast.He should know, since he's the person responsible for the server holding up the mobile megahit that took over the world in 2016.As a senior software engineer at Niantic, Park's primary job is to design and manage the backend system behind the augmented reality (AR) game that boasts nearly 150 million active players around the world. Developed by Niantic, Pokemon Go is an interactive game that uses your phone's GPS, clock and camera to turn the world into a hunting ground for iconic Pokemon creatures. "Sometimes I feel like a magician," says Park, who led the implementation of the dynamic weather, trading and gifting features. "Tight deadlines and coding all-nighters come frequently with the job, but once the release goes live and I see hundreds of thousands of players enjoying whatever I've been envisioning and working on, the hard work pays off."Park is good at what he does and may seem like someone you'd call a born programmer, but he was a relative late starter by today's standard.With a background in liberal arts, he belatedly switched his major to computer science while attending Ajou University in Suwon."My basics fell behind my peers and I struggled with simple algorithmic problems when the person next to me solved them in a flash," Park recalled. "I saw where I lacked, but instead I tried to find answers to more fundamental questions like, 'Why does a computer function the way it does?'"I went through piles and piles of books on the history and theory of computers. It took time, but every minute was worth it."And then in 2002, Park attended a conference in Edinburgh, Scotland, as a master's student. That's where he experienced a "love at first sight" moment with programming. "I saw a bunch of people from the U.S. dressed in a plain T-shirt and faded jeans camped out on the floor of the hallway of the conference center, not minding the keynote inside the conference room, but busy coding away," Park said. "I don't know what was so charming about it, but I knew right away that I wanted to be like one of them."After returning to Korea, he got straight to work to make his newfound dream come true. A few months later, he was accepted as a doctoral candidate in computer science at the University of Virginia."I continued to struggle for the same reason but I stuck through it and ended up landing my first job with Eucalyptus, a startup founded by the very people who were at the Edinburgh conference," Park said.The seasoned software engineer says many people in Korea think software engineers in the U.S. have it easier, but that isn't entirely true. "Competition is just the same, if not fiercer, here, but the difference is that there are more options for programmers," said Park, who explains there is a wide range of companies with different missions. "There aren't many people who stay with one company for more than five years," he said."Programmers are now seen as specialized professionals who are evaluated and compensated based on their unique programming capability."On the future of AR games, Park says companies won't be successful unless they have a mission."Fancy technology is nothing more than a gimmick if used without a clear purpose," he stressed, adding that AR games truly shine only when they are made to allow reality to stand out.As for Niantic, the company's mission is "Adventure on foot," which is in many ways a direct opposite from today's trend where people prefer to live through their fingertips on their phones, Park said. "Pokemon Go's most enjoyable moment isn't when users have their eyes fixated on phone screens," he said. "It's when they lift their eyes to see the world around them and make real-life interactions with other users."In Korea, developers should focus on researching which reality to let stand out, instead of focusing on technological or fun factors, Park says.